Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Office Closure during Holiday Season


I have received a couple of office and library closings during the Holiday Season, and they are -

Quebec Family History Society - The library and office of the Quebec Family History Society will be closed for the holiday's from Friday December 21, 2012 until and including Wednesday January 2, 2013.

The library and office will re-open Thursday, January 3, 2013 at 10:00 a.m.

Please check their website at www.qfhs.ca. And if you are a member, refer to the winter copy of "Connections" for a complete list of upcoming activities hosted by the Quebec Family History Society.

Société de généalogie de l'Outaouais (The Genealogical Society of the Outaouais) in Gatineau, Quebec will have its office and research room closed from the 22 December 2012 to the 2 January 2013 for the Holidays. They will reopen the 3 January 2013.

Their website is at http://genealogieoutaouais.com

© Elizabeth Lapointe All Rights Reserved



Monday, December 17, 2012

New/Updated Websites, Blogs, and Newspaper Articles - 17 December 2012

I have come across the following websites, blogs, and newspaper articles this past week that were of interest to me, and I thought you might be interested in them, too –

5th Canada's History Forum www.canadashistory.ca/Education/Young-Historians/-hi-story-telling/December-2012/5th-Canada-s-History-Forum.aspx Read about the conversation that is starting to take place about where we are in making plans for the 100th anniversary of the First World War in 2014.

Top Ten Olive Tree Genealogy Blog Posts 2003-2012 http://olivetreegenealogy.blogspot.ca/2012/12/top-ten-olive-tree-genealogy-blog-posts.html Read the blogs that Lorine considers to be her best 10 blog posts from 2003 to 2012.

Library Concerned About National Archives Loan Service Closing http://hqprincegeorge.com/news/local/news/Local/2012/12/15/Library-Concerned-About-National-Archives-Loan-Service-Closing Still another newspaper article about the LAC closing their Interlibrary Loan Service.

Friends of the Milo Library Society receives funds for a new scanner www.vulcanadvocate.com/2012/11/22/friends-of-the-milo-library-society-receives-funds-for-a-new-scanner The local news section of the Vulcan Advocate News reports that the Milo Library Society received funds from the Community Foundation of Lethbridge and Southwestern Alberta and they plan to buy a large format scanner to help digitize historical records with the money!

© Elizabeth Lapointe All Rights Reserved

Sunday, December 16, 2012

More Holiday Gift Ideas

Here are some nore places to check which has books/CDs you may like either for yourself or for someone else during the Holiday Season -

In 2008, the Ontario Genealogical Society, and Dundurn Press entered a joint partnership in which the OGS would edit the books and Dundurn Press would publish them. Together, they have published many books on Canadian genealogy.

Families, the quarterly journal of the OGS (of which I am the editor) has regular excerpts from the books and reviews of books from their catalogue.

The OGS e-Store website has books at  www.ogs.on.ca/ogscart/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=2

Global Genealogy, located near Toronto, is another good source of genealogy books, maps, and CDs.

They just came through their 20th year of operation, and they have published their “Top 10 Gift Ideas for the history and genealogy enthusiast on your list” at http://globalgenealogy.com/new/top-10.htm.

They also have two of my research booklets for sale — The War of 1812: Canada and the United States and Migration: Canada and the United States — that you might enjoy as a gift for a loved one, or even yourself!

And right down the road from us in Manotick is Archive CD Books Canada www.archivecdbooks.ca/acdbcanada.html. Malcolm Moody and his wife, Chris, carry a huge selection of older local Canadian history books that they have scanned and published on CDs in electronic document format.

What makes their business unique is that they take much care and effort in scanning each of the books (and maps, too), so it’s like buying the book in its natural form, with its resulting high quality and readability, which is rare when it comes to scanned books. The CDs are easy to use, reasonably-priced, and backed by the Moody’s expertise and broad subject knowledge.

So if you are wondering what you could possibly get for a gift for the genealogist on your list, these are some of the places you can visit for ideas of what they would like to see under the tree this Christmas!

Saturday, December 15, 2012

The Memory Jar

The North Shore News has something of interest in an article entitled "Homemade gifts a good option" during this holiday season.

A number of gifts are mentioned, but one that caught my eye is the gift of a memory jar. This is where you can put “meaningful photograph, an old report card, a forgotten letter, the sheet music of a beloved song, maybe even an old edition of a favourite book, those can all go in the jar”.

What a neat idea!

Read more at www.nsnews.com/life/Homemade+gifts+good+option/7686488/story.html#ixzz2F7y1uZ57

Friday, December 14, 2012

TD Hogmanay Party 2012


The Scottish Society of Ottawa and the City of Ottawa is having an inaugural event that is set for New Year’s Eve 2012 – a Hogmanay street party at Ottawa City Hall! It aims is to replicate the excitement of Edinburgh’s world famous Royal Mile as the clock strikes midnight and we enter the New Year.

It will be held at the Ottawa City Hall (Outside at Marion Dewar Park) on Dec. 31th, 2012 from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m.

The result is a FREE, Edinburgh-style party that will have fireworks, Celtic bands, ice-skating on the Rink of Dreams, ice-sculpting, Highland dancing, Scotch-tasting. And there will be bagpipes. Music will come from local folkies Ecosse, Celtic fusion Cape Breton-style from Sprag Session and surprise special guest headline act, whose identity we’ll release closer to the big night.

We’ll also have the Sons of Scotland, Glengarry, and Kemptville Legion pipe bands, the Celtic Cross Dancers and the Katharine Robinson Dancers. Did we mention it’s all free.

Bring the family down to celebrate New Year’s Eve in Scotland at 7pm EST. Or hang around until midnight, enjoy a dram or a pint of McAuslan beer, hear the bells, sing Auld Lang Syne and watch the fireworks bring in the New Year. Sláinte mhath

The hope is that this event grows to become an Ottawa institution.

The website of The Scottish Society of Ottawa is www.thescottishsocietyofottawa.com/events/hogmanay-party-2012

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Library and Archives Canada’s Travelling Exhibitions

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) is on the road!

With four travelling exhibitions on display in different venues across Canada, including one in the National Capital Region, LAC is showcasing the richness and diversity of its collections. This is an excellent example of LAC’s commitment to making the country’s heritage and history accessible to all Canadians—regardless of where they live.

The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, in British Columbia, is hosting the exhibition Beyond Likeness: Contemporary Works from Library and Archives Canada until January 6, 2013. Through the works of 23 contemporary artists, the exhibition explores the evolving concept of portraiture from more traditional representations of likeness to works that challenge the conventions of the genre.

The New Brunswick Museum in Saint John is presenting the exhibition I Know You by Heart: Portrait Miniatures until December 31, 2012. Showcasing 35 recently restored portraits, the exhibition highlights the intimate, personal nature of portrait miniatures, and the reasons that such images are commissioned, created and carried. In March 2013, the exhibition will make its way to the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon.

The McMichael Art Gallery in Kleinburg, Ontario, is showcasing LAC’s most recent exhibition Double Take: Portraits of Intriguing Canadians until January 20, 2013. Double Take presents 50 Canadians who have left—and are leaving—their mark on our country and our culture.

Finally, the exhibition Faces of 1812 is on display at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa until January 6, 2013. A commemorative exhibition, Faces of 1812 presents some of the men and women who experienced the War of 1812. LAC’s curatorial YouTube video and Faces of 1812 podcast will introduce you to the selected works that document this significant historical event.

Keep following this blog to find out where these exhibitions will travel next. It could be your hometown!

The website of the LAC is at www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/Pages/home.aspx

Library Books are Vandalized


A blog at the Windsor Star (Windsor, Ontario) has an unsettling post  about books at the Leamington Library being vandalized with urine.

And they weren’t just any book – they were genealogy books!

To read the post, go to
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/2012/12/10/library-books-vandalized-with-urine